North News
New Delhi, January 20
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Centre government to decide by March 18 on the long-pending mercy petition of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the 1995 assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. Rajoana, a former Punjab Police constable, was sentenced to death in 2007 for his role in a bomb blast outside Chandigarh’s Civil Secretariat on August 31, 1995, which killed Beant Singh and 16 others. His mercy plea, filed over 12 years ago, has yet to be resolved, leaving Rajoana in prison for more than 28 years.
